Rumor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Set to Play Batman in 2015’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, Maybe Even Earlier

Justice League is coming in 2015, which is sooner than you think. Just last year, Zack Snyder said his Superman movie Man of Steel has nothing to do with Justice League, and Batman curator Christopher Nolan has no plans to get involved. With DC’s two biggest superheroes on their own separate tracks, it was unclear just how and when Warner Bros. would start building up to Justice League over the next three years. The answer may have come today in the form of the obvious: they already started. Snyder now recognizes that the Superman you see in Man of Steel is almost certainly the same alien you will see in Justice League. A new report suggests that you have already seen the new Batman, and he is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Details after the jump.

I apologize to those of you who are still waiting to see The Dark Knight Rises (specifically my brother), but we need to dive into TDKR spoilers here.

The last scene in the movie shows humble cop John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) inheriting the Batcave on a clear path to succeed Bruce Wayne as the new Batman now that the old Batman is “dead.” I buy that Nolan wanted this moment as a thematic capper to his trilogy with no particular interest in setting up the future of the franchise. But how could WB pass up this opportunity to directly tie the next iteration of Batman to Nolan’s ultra-successful series? So of course it makes sense that the studio would approach Gordon-Levitt about continuing the role after Dark Knight Rises, probably long before today.

The difference now is that, according to Motion/Captured, Gordon-Levitt is close to a deal that would lay out the long-term plan for JGL as Batman. As per this August rumor, it’s very possible that they’ll wait until Justice League in 2015 to reintroduce Batman. But M/C, after speaking to sources to put together the report, has reason to believe we will see Gordon-Levitt as Batman earlier than that. From there, it’s all speculation, and I’m sure you can picture it. There is only one major DC feature between now and Justice League, and it’s not that hard to shoot one of those post-credit scenes for Man of Steel where Superman gets a call on the Batphone from a mysterious figure who needs help against a powerful foe…

Too much heresay at this point, sadly. Surely we will learn more concrete details on Justice League and the greater DC/WB partnership leading up to the June 2013 release of Man of Steel.